Lawmakers allege police plot to invade Ekiti

Members of Ekiti State House of Assembly have accused the police of planning to invade the Fountain of Knowledge to arrest top government functionaries and chieftains of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Describing the planned invasion as an “assault on democracy”, the legislators, who condemned what they called the “incessant harassment” of cabinet members of the Ayo Fayose administration, Assembly members and PDP members, said it was aimed at gaining power through the backdrop.

In a statement yesterday by their Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, the lawmakers accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders of being the masterminds of the alleged plot.

It urged the Acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, not to allow the Police under him to be used to truncate democracy.

Oluwawole claimed that 20 officers that will carry out the alleged Ekiti invasion will be led by one ACP Olusola Oke, urging the acting IGP to resist the pressure of using his men to “cause chaos” in the state.

But the Ekiti State Police Command has denied the lawmakers’ allegation, saying signals to that effect had not been received from the Louis Edet House, Force Headquarters in Abuja.

The state police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi said:” I am not aware of that. We are about 5,000 policemen in the command and for 20 policemen to come and invade Ekiti, I regard that as too absurd.

“We have nothing of such either from the IG or the CP. All we know is that we are on ground and doing our work as required by the law. My brother, there is no truth in that, it is not true.”

But Oluwawole said: “Harassing PDP members in Ekiti State, government officials and members of the State House of Assembly will not help democracy in Nigeria and the international community should help Nigeria to sustain Democracy by calling the APC-led federal government to order.”

“Plotters of evil against Governor Ayodele Fayose and his government must know that we in the House of Assembly will not present ourselves to be used against our governor. They should know that even if we are arrested and detained for one year, we won’t collaborate with those plotting evil against Governor Fayose.”

“If two years after losing a free, fair and credible election and exploring all legal options up to the Supreme Court, some people are still running from the Army, DSS, EFCC and Police, writing frivolous petitions, law enforcements agencies in the country, especially the police should be mindful of turning itself to tool in the hands of those who are obviously out to truncate democracy in Ekiti State.

“The IGP should rather ask, what is the sense in writing over 100 petitions over an election conducted in just 16 local councils and was adjudged as free, fair and credible even by International Observers, including the United States Government.”